What Is The Device On Players' Belts At The Hero World Challenge?

Tiger Woods' return to professional golf has dominated headlines this week in Albany, but eagle-eyed viewers of the Hero World Challenge would have also noted a new technological development being trialled on players.

Scottie Scheffler was seen with the GPS-looking device on his belt for the practice round, while Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler were also sporting the devices during the first two rounds of the tournament.

So, what are? Well, the machines are new tracking technology that is being trialled at a PGA Tour event for the first time. The aim is to provide more reliable and accurate data to improve the Tour's ShotLink system, the data network currently used to track players' shots in real time for fans back home.

Currently, procuring the data relies on a lot of help from volunteers at each event, using data from radars, lasers and videos to capture the ball flight of every shot. From there, that information can be used to track ball flight, distance and exactly where the ball ends up. 

However, the technology is far from faultless and very labour-intensive. It's not used at all PGA Tour events and is yet to be carried out at LPGA Tour events. The hope, therefore, is that these small devices - already trialled at Korn Ferry and Champions Tour events - can help combat those issues and provide not only more data but more accurate readings.

According to reports from Golf.com, players who have trialled the devices so far are not fussed about wearing the clip-on tracker. It certainly hasn't affected Spieth and Scheffler that is for sure. Both were pictured wearing the devices and ended the second round in a share of the lead. 

NBC Golf Reporter, John Woods, was able to explain more how the devices work when speaking to Golf Channel.

"They’ve been in R&D [research and development] for a couple of years. They take a reading of the players’ location every three seconds, plot it on a graph and then when they get to their ball — once they hit — the walking scorer will hit a button and that gives them their yardage," he said.